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Apr 21, 2010

Eternity Can Wait

There are moments that grab hold of you and demand attention. They are unpredictable, volatile, and magnetic. Once encountered, they are forever. But they are also ephemeral. They are not meant to be endured, nor are they, in a real sense, "real." These moments of "Eternal Return", of some yearned-for primal experience are inherently about alternative timelines. They are only alive in the past and in the future. There is no present for a mythic moment – it is too attached to Eternity to be limited to 'now.'

This is "mythic time."

Trying to live in Mythic Time is like trying to breathe in a Mikveh. The sacred womb of water envelops, holds, caresses, transforms, invites, offering everything always. But it is not endurable. It is not a place of engaged living. It is a liminal space, a threshold. Immersion in Mikvah is a consuming, frightening, bare, illuminating encounter with Eternity. It is a disengagement from the world.

Mythic Moments, liminal encounters, are not meant to last. But they are tastes of Eternity, of boundarilessness. They are steps out of life into Heaven, but they are too charged to be helpful in an ongoing way.

Liminal space is 'not here nor there.' And attempting to live in the Mythic moment is the same as ignoring real moments in time, real opportunities and obligations and relationships – missing the person before you in the name of swimming in boundarilessness.

In the World to Come there are no distinctions, which is literally Divine. But, in this life, we are called to Live fully, to be present in every possible immediate moment.

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ABOUT

Rabbi Menachem Creditor serves as the spiritual leader of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA. Named by Newsweek as one of the 50 most influential rabbis in America, he is a published author, musician, teacher and activist who has spent time working locally, in Ghana, and in the White House to amplify the prophetic Jewish voice in the world. His books include "Peace in Our Cities: Rabbis Against Gun Violence," "Fierce Feelings: Poems," and "Siddur Tov LeHodot: A Transliterated Shabbat Prayerbook." A frequent speaker on Jewish Leadership and Literacy in communities around the United States and Israel, he serves on the board of American Jewish World Service, the Executive Council for the Rabbinical Assembly, and the Chancellor’s Rabbinic Cabinet at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and the Times of Israel. He blogs at menachemcreditor.org.